Technical Field
This disclosure relates generally to computer processing, and includes discussion of techniques and structures usable to reduce power consumption during execution of an instruction loop.
Description of the Related Art
Before being executed by a processor, instructions are frequently stored in a cache. As an instruction stream is executed, the cache may be continually updated, and provide new instructions to execution pipelines within the processor. In some instances, a series of instructions may be repeatedly executed as part of an instruction loop. Power that is supplied to certain structures within a processor (such as an instruction cache or branch predictor) during execution of an instruction loop may be unnecessarily used, however, as there may be little or no benefit in some instances to performing certain operations while a (relatively small) group of instructions is repeatedly executed during the loop.